Complaining Customers Are Good For Business

Remember the Coca Cola marketing
disaster a few years ago? They tried to
switch Coke drinkers to New Coke. It
didn't work. Fortunately, the company
quickly recognized the problem and had
the resources to recover fast. Their
follow up research revealed that only 1
unhappy customer in 50 takes time to
complain. The other 49 just quietly
switch brands.

It's human nature to avoid unpleasant
experiences like customer complaints.
Nobody likes bad news. But uncovering
customer complaints and satisfying
them can give you a powerful
competitive advantage.

WHY YOU WANT TO HEAR
CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

Dissatisfied customers or clients can do
one of 4 things:

1. Remain silent

2. Complain to a legal or public agency

3. Complain to friends and anybody else
who will listen

4. Complain to you

Which choice would you like them to
make? The best choice may surprise
you.

You certainly don't want them to
complain to a legal or public agency.
And you definitely don't want them to

complain to their friends and associates.
Imagine how much business that can
cost you.

Remaining silent may seem like the best
choice. But it's not, for 2 reasons. First,
because it really won't happen. It's
human nature for people to talk about
their experiences -- especially
experiences involving emotions like
those generated by an unsatisfactory
business transaction. The other reason
you don't want a dissatisfied customer

to remain silent is because it deprives you
of the chance to correct the problem and
save your relationship with your
customer.

The best choice is to have your unhappy
customer complain to you.

COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS ARE
DOING YOU A FAVOR

Customers or clients who take the time
and trouble to complain to you are doing
you a favor. They're helping you grow
your business. They're giving you the
opportunity to resolve their problem and
keep them as a customer. They're also
alerting you to a problem that may be
costing you business from other
prospects and customers without your
knowledge.

This applies to every business including
independent distributors for MLM or
network marketing companies. If the
problem is in your area of responsibility
you can correct it. If the problem is with
your company's product or system you
can advise them and ask them to correct it.
You can also reduce the impact of a
company problem on your operation by
telling your distributors about it and
letting them know the company is taking
corrective action.

ENCOURAGE CUSTOMER
COMPLAINTS

The Coca Cola Company discovered their
New Coke marketing disaster quickly
because they print a toll-free consumer
information telephone number on all their
product packages. The sudden deluge of
complaint calls alerted them immediately to
the extent of the problem and enabled
them to respond fast to minimize the
damage. I wonder how long it would have
taken them to discover the problem if they
didn't provide that telephone number and
encourage complaints?

A toll-free consumer information line is
one way to encourage customer
complaints and feedback. Here are others
especially suited to small businesses on a
limited budget.

* Develop a customer satisfaction and
comments form. Include it with products
you ship or with correspondence to
customers and clients if you don't ship
products.

* Send a follow up postcard to customers
a week or 10 days after completing a
transaction and ask if everything is OK.
You can do this by email or telephone if
it's appropriate.

* Create a separate page at your website
for customer comments and complaints.
Publicize the address on your home page
and on all communications with your
customers.

Your customers and clients know your
strengths and weaknesses better than
you. Get them to identify your

weaknesses and tell you what they are so
you can correct them. It may be
uncomfortable or ego deflating to hear
about your weaknesses. But you'll soon
forget that when you take corrective
action and see the positive impact it has
on your bottom line.

Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of
recruiting sales personnel and developing
sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant.
Bob recently wrote a manual for small
business owners titled "How to Build
Your Small Business Fast With Simple
Postcards" and several other publications
to help small businesses grow and
prosper. For more information
mailto:BobLeduc@aol.com?subject=Postc
ards Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM
Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box
33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133